Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of all inside meniscal repair technique in treating bucket handle tears of the meniscus in the athletic population.

Method: From 2005–2008, 40 patients underwent meniscal repair for bucket handle tear of the meniscus, either as a primary procedure or combined with ACL reconstruction. All patients were contacted by clinical review, letter or telephone retrospectively. All patients were scored using the Tegner Knee score. All patients had been participating in sport at international level, semi professional level or club level. Failure was defined as a recurrence in symptoms necessitating reoperation and success as a return to competitive sport.

Results: There were 27 medial meniscal tears and 13 lateral, in 38 knees. The average age was 23 years (16–39). The average length of follow up was 1.5 years (0–2–3.1) years, and the average time from injury to surgery was 47 weeks. 9 patients were treated with fast fix (Smith and Nephew Endoscopy) and 31 Rapidloc (DePuy Mitek). There was an average of 2.85 sutures used. The overall cumulative survival rate at two years was 83.9% (4 Failures). All reoperations were preceded by a subsequent traumatic event to the knee resulting in a recurrence of symptoms. Time to return to sport in patients with associated ACL reconstruction was not affected by conincidental meniscal repair. Of the primary meniscal repairs the time to return to previous sport was less than 4 months.

Conclusion: This study shows that meniscal repair has a high success rate for sporting individuals with meniscal tears and has a high chance of the individual returning to competitive sports.